The vulture bird is the largest of all birds of prey in the world. These feathered creatures inhabit almost the entire globe. The only exceptions are Australia and Antarctica. Birds prefer a warm and mild climate. Perhaps that is why the lion's share of all vultures lives in Africa.
General description of vultures
Vulture bird does not look very attractive. These creatures have long, but completely bare necks, a large hook-shaped beak and a huge goiter. Their wings are wide and large, rounded at the edges. The tail is stiff and has a stepped structure. The legs of the vultures are rather strong and massive limbs, however, the toes are weak, and the nails are blunt and short.
Report card
Vultures are called all birds representing the vulture subfamily. There is a separate group among them - vultures. Sipes are very similar to American vultures, however, ornithologists do not bring these two groups of birds together, apart from their close relatives. The vulture family is one of the most diverse and vibrant among birds. It is represented by the following types:
- African vulture;
- griffon vulture;
- Bengal vulture;
- Cape vulture;
- Indian vulture;
- snow vulture;
- African vulture.
It is curious that some other genera of birds representing the subfamily of vultures and a separate group of American vultures are also classified as vultures. Representatives of the vulture subfamily include:
- eared vultures;
- black vultures;
- gray vultures;
- brown vultures;
- bald vultures;
- Condors
- ridge vultures.
It is worth noting that the latter are the most noble creatures from the entire scavenger family. As already mentioned above, the so-called vultures represent a special genus. They differ from their relatives by an elongated but weak beak, a long goose neck and powerful limbs.
Ornithologists belong to the family of hyphae and the favorite bird of all Native Americans - the condor. The fact is that at one time the Indians had fun using condors: they caught these birds, tied them to the backs of bulls and watched the ungulate trying to throw off the scavenger, pecking his back.
By the way, in the South American country of Peru, Urubi, or black vultures, are in great demand among the local population. These birds are very gullible creatures and are not at all afraid of people. Urubi are taken under the strictest protection by local laws, as they are peculiar cleaners: they clean the streets of cities from excessive dirt.
What do vultures eat?
Vulture is a bird of prey, or rather, a scavenger. These birds rarely attack living creatures, preferring to eat corpses of animals. Only sometimes during a painful famine, vultures dare to attack living animals. However, even in this case, the birds try to choose the weakest or sickest creatures.
Scientists who observed the behavior of these birds say that the vulture most likely pecks at the corpses of mammals, but in some cases it does not neglect reptiles, fish, and even its relatives - other birds. It is curious that, for example, in India, vultures with pleasure peck the corpses of people who were thrown as usual after death into the Ganges River.
Vulture lifestyle
The bird of prey of the vulture family is a rather agile and agile creature. These creatures walk easily, moving in short but quick steps. Vultures fly well too, only slowly, but this does not stop them from climbing to great heights. Scavengers are not deprived of excellent vision either: vultures are looking for their prey from fairly high altitudes.
Ornithologists scoff at the vultures about their quick wits: they are really deprived of this. Some stupidity inherent in them by nature rewarded them with a number of certain negative qualities. Not only is the vulture bird shy, imprudent, rather hot-tempered and extremely irritable, it is also arrogant, and even cowardly! In addition to this, it should be noted that vultures are famous for their inexplicable ferocity.
The lion's share of the time, these birds roam around the globe, and then suddenly appear in huge numbers in those places where several months had not appeared before. It is curious that while some types of vultures can safely walk around city and village streets, others try to avoid meeting people in every possible way and generally do not appear near human settlements.
